Dad might get a cigar and a snifter of brandy and Mom might browse the latest magazine elegantly presented in a leather cover while the kids watch the landscape fly by. Later the family heads to the dining car for a gourmet meal of little-neck clams, tenderloin steak or fresh bluefish served on elegant china plates.

"Nothing was more luxurious than the Black Diamond express," says Jill Youngken, assistant director of Lehigh Valley Heritage Museum. "It was the crème de la crème of railroads."

The museum wants to give visitors a first-hand taste of what life was like during the heyday of railroads with its big new interactive exhibit "Glory & Triumph: Trains Made America."

The 4,000-square-foot exhibit opening Saturday spans two floors and four rooms and features more than 300 artifacts that celebrate the history of the area's railroads, particularly the Lehigh Valley Railroad. Ten model train layouts are interspersed with vintage train lights, railroad signs, equipment and luxurious appointments from the fabled passenger cars, providing the sights, sounds and even the feel of the rails.

"Our idea was to make trains come alive," says Joseph Garrera, executive director of the museum. "There's something in this exhibit for everyone — the railroad enthusiast, the model railroader and the general public."

Railroads were an integral part of the expansion of the United States in the 1900s. Not only could people travel longer distances by train but also goods could be transported, leading to the growth of industry.

Many of the artifacts are from the now defunct Lehigh Valley Railroad (LVRR) which ran from 1855 to 1959 and traveled from New York through Easton, Bethlehem and Allentown to Buffalo. The line was a major carrier of anthracite coal, and the flagship passenger train was the Black Diamond, known as "the handsomest train in the world." The train was named for the hard coal that burned cleaner than soft coal and created less soot to soil passengers' clothes.

"At one time the Lehigh Valley Railroad had more than 1,000 locomotives on the rails," Garrera says. "Passenger trains were a major part of the culture."

The entrance to the museum has been set up to give the feel that you are entering a train station. A member of the museum staff dressed as a railroad conductor will punch boarding passes amid flashing signal lights, train whistles and hissing steam.

A highlight for the younger set is the Thomas Fun Room, where a model train layout features Thomas the Tank Engine and his fellow engines chugging around the tracks in front of a giant Thomas mural painted by artist Rosemary Geseck of Bethlehem. Kids can sit in a 1947 train engineer seat, wear a conductor's hat and toot the whistle for Thomas. Children can also make train art, do train puzzles and paint a toy engine to take home.

Next door in the hobo room, children will learn about the hobos who traveled the rails, hopping on trains during the first part of the 1900s. A board displays hobo signs — drawings of symbols hobos made to communicate with other hobos. Kids also can dress up in vintage clothes like hobos and do a scavenger hunt for hobo signs hidden throughout the museum.

Children also can learn about railroad flag signals and can pretend to be a railroad signalman and try signaling with flags.

"The railroad depended on flags," Youngken says. "Flags signals were an important part of the railroad and the way they communicated."

Families also can try sending Morse code messages to each other on an authentic 1920s telegraph system that was "state-of-the-art" at the time, Garrera says, as well as try out one of the actual lounge chairs from the Black Diamond.

In the education room, an elaborate model train layout from Allentown train enthusiast Bill Hacker features a light-up movie marquee and tiny children swinging on a swing set.

In the main second floor gallery, cases display conductor hats, boarding passes, log books, century-old dining car china and silverware, menus, timetables and even a stencil used at Bethlehem Steel to put its name on railroad cars. A rare porcelain sign warning people to stay off the train tracks from the 1920s is on display for the first time ever.

More than 100 oversized vintage photos of trains that date back to the 1860s are so evocative "you can almost smell the coal and hear the whistle of the train," Garrera says.

Commanding center attention are three massive brass locomotive engine bells that visitors can ring. One of the century-old bells weighs more than 300 pounds and is one of largest locomotive bells ever made. The bell and some of the other artifacts are on loan from Steamtown National Historic Site in Scranton.